


Pretty Waste

by Another_Local_Dreamer



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish is Bad at Feelings, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fae, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ronan Lynch Angst, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch Swears, Self-Esteem Issues, Transformation, Wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Another_Local_Dreamer/pseuds/Another_Local_Dreamer
Summary: "Then Adam tripped over a piece of darkness made solid and landed heavily. A wing. He stumbled back, away from the night horror. They may have been Ronan's creations, but they had a mind of their own.The night horror didn't move. Adam crept closer. Still nothing. He realized there was no night horror attached to the wing, that at the base of it where it should have adhered to the back of a monster was the tattooed skin of Ronan's back."Alternatively known as the one where Ronan and Adam go on an angst-filled road trip to the fae courts to try and lift a curse and try to work out their self esteem issues.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch & Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Pretty Waste

<

Walking in Cabeswater at night was simultaneously more and less comforting than traipsing around Cabeswater during the day. More comforting because Ronan refused to let Adam go "stumbling around a creepy-ass magical forest in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere at ass o’clock in the morning" by himself, and so the otherwise otherworldly and ominous atmosphere was filled with the sounds of one Ronan Lynch tripping over what sounded like every root in the state, and a near constant stream of curses that could have curdled milk.

Less comforting because again, this was a creepy-ass magical forest in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere. Almost all the ambient nighttime noise was drowned out by the sound of overflowing eloquence and creativity pouring from his companion’s mouth, but Adam wasn't listening for physical sounds. He cocked his head and turned, listening for the whisper that had been sounding constantly in his dead ear for at least a week. Apparently, there was a blockage of energy on the ley line, or something, and Cabeswater had been extremely vocal about getting it done Right Now, _sorry about your sleep schedule Adam._

So Adam was crawling around at three a.m. in a creepy-ass magical forest in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere. But at least he wasn't alone.

"Motherfucker," said Ronan. "I'm dreaming your weirdo forest a GPS for its birthday. Are you sure you aren't getting any directions clearer than 'around here somewhere'? We've been out here for an hour and a half."

Adam shrugged. "Cabeswater isn't elaborating. It just wants me to know something's over here that I'm supposed to fix. It'll tell me when we see it." He was too tired to make any effort to hide his Henrietta accent, but he knew Ronan of all people wouldn't judge him for it.

Right as he finished saying that, Adam tripped over a rock in the gloom and went down, hard. In an effort to regain his balance he stepped forward, right over the edge of a short incline, then landed on his ass and slid a few yards, before coming to an abrupt stop. He hit the edge of a fallen log, then bounced back, skidding across the damp ground.

"Adam!" Ronan's shout was a distant thing in his mind, barely registering as he tried to catch his breath. He distantly noticed him scrambling down the slope, a much more graceful descent than Adam had achieved. "Holy shit are you OK?"

Adam held up his fingers in a 'hold on, wait' gesture while he attempted to wheeze out a response. "Jesus fucking Christ," he gasped. "Oh my god."

"Don't take the lord's name in vain, asshole," Ronan snapped, but it sounded more like _thank god you're ok._ He extended his arm to Adam, who took it and pulled himself heavily to his feet.

Adam glanced around the small clearing he'd tumbled into, trying not to throw up. The area was dark and damp, surrounded by a ring of large mushrooms, perfectly symmetrical except for the rotted husk of a tree that stretched across the center like a beached whale.

It must have been a magnificent tree at one point, gnarled and knotted; If Adam had hugged it, there was no way his arms would have it all the way around. Now, however, it lay on its side, crawling with lichen and moss and fungus and bugs alike. As he cast his gaze across it, the little tingle in the back of his mind that he recognized as Cabeswater rose in volume. 

He got Ronan's attention and pointed at the tree carcass. "I think it wants us to move that."

"Are you shitting me?"

"Nope, now come on and put your back into it."

"I'm going to put my back _out_ doing this."

Adam ignored him and grabbed one of the branches spiderwebbing out from the trunk. It broke off in his hand with an unsatisfying sound, not the strong snap of green wood, but the dull silty crunch of dead and rotten bark. 

Said bark disintegrated in his hand and rubbed up against his palm in a sort of gritty, damp, way. Adam grimaced and rubbed his fingers against his jeans in a futile attempt to dislodge it. 

Further away, Ronan was snapping off the largest branches and chucking them off into the woods. Adam adopted this strategy as well; the dull thumps of rotten wood hitting packed earth rhythmic and soothing after a time. Soon, all they were left with was the trunk.

Soundlessly, Adam moved to one side and Ronan to the other, and together they lifted the hulk. It was a lot less heavy than it should have been, probably due to age and weathering and rotting, but Adam couldn't help but think that Cabeswater was helping to bear some of the load.

They walked it out of the clearing and dropped it a little way into the woods. Immediately, the pressure at the back of Adam's mind vanished, and he sighed in relief. They walked back to the clearing in companionable silence, then sat down in the center of the clearing they'd freed. The mushrooms around the circumference seemed to be glowing, and maybe they were. They were in Cabeswater, which meant anything was possible. 

He shifted himself around, until he and Ronan were sitting back to back, each supporting each other's weight. He tilted his head back to rest on Ronan's shoulder so he could look up at the stars. They sat like that for a while.

Then, Adam gently nudged Ronan in the side with his elbow and softly said, "Thanks for coming with me. You didn't have to." 

He watched Ronan's reaction to the breath from his words ghosting over the shell of his ear. Ronan sighed. "No. I didn't." He nudged Adam back. "But I'll go with you anytime." 

Adam didn't understand how Ronan could just say things like that. Maybe he was just too used to lying and hiding, but he kept those declarations to himself, hoarding them like some sort of currency, only to be exchanged when the moment was right. Ronan gave himself freely, while Adam spent days or weeks or months or years building up the courage to chip little pieces of himself off to show to others.

He opened his mouth to respond to that, although he wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He was saved from this by the mushrooms (toadstools?) all flaring with a sudden, blinding, blue-white light that left Adam blinking blue-black spots out of his vision and Ronan grunting in surprise and pain.

As sudden as the light had come, it vanished, and the resulting contrast made Adam wonder if he'd actually gone blind. He instinctively reached for Ronan’s wrist. Ronan apparently had the same idea, and their hands met in a mildly painful tangle of nails and joints and fingers, but once they'd found each other’s palms Adam clung on with a death grip.

He still couldn't see anything, but gradually he became aware of another... presence, for lack of a better word. A dry chuckle wrapped around them, reminiscent of a breeze through green leaves, or a babbling brooke, or chirping frogs and singing birds, or- wait. 

Cabeswater hissed a warning in the back of his mind and Adam shook his head. This stranger wasn't using any type of magic he was familiar with, but it was magic just the same.

The laugh swept across them again. "Very good, little magician. Although I should have expected as much from the one who bridged the Gap. Tell me, what should I gift you for such a favor. Something grand I should think. Wealth beyond measure? Power? Respect? Choose carefully, little magician, but be quick, for time is moving. Tick-tock!"

Ronan stepped in front of him. "Stay the fuck away from him, or else." 

Adam heard rustling in the bushes behind them, the familiar _chk-chk-chk_ of night horrors. It was easy to forget- as much as Adam was Cabeswater's, Cabeswater was _Ronan's_. 

"Oh?" The voice sounded genuinely surprised. " _Now_ , what's this?" It was hard to tell if they were male or female.

"I haven't seen a dreamer in ages!"

Ronan's back stiffened and he bared his teeth. The figure stepped into the clearing out of nothing. It was as if he had been there with them the whole time, but Adam knew that wasn't true. It had the same mind-bending strangeness as some of Ronan's weirdest dream things.

They were tall, that was the first thing Adam noticed. The second was that their ears were long and tapered, ending in a point. The third was that while their mouth was smiling, their eyes were cold and calculating.

They spread their arms wide, the sleeves of their robes hanging under wrists, and their long pitch-black hair flashing despite the lack of light. A silver circlet gleamed upon their forehead, shining with its own light. 

They clapped their hands together. "Come now cousin, don't be this way! We have so much in common!"

Adam didn't trust them one bit, and Ronan clearly didn't either, but he still growled out "What the fuck do you mean, cousin?"

They raised their hands to their mouth in mock surprise. "Oh, dreamer, don't you know your own lineage?"

"Yeah," said Ronan. "They're all dead." 

Now it was Ronan's turn to crush Adam's hand in a vice. Just for a moment, some long buried survival instinct rose to the surface, insidiously whispering _at least the attention isn't on you_. Adam hated himself for the thought instantly.

"Oh, don't you know what makes a dreamer? _Very_ hard to get all the ingredients together, but the result is just so rewarding. You-" they paused to run a hand over Ronan's cheek and Ronan's vice-like grip increased- "have Fey blood running through your _disappointingly_ human veins."

Adam found his voice. "Is that what you are then? Fey?"

The being's attention snapped to him lightning-quick. "Oh you _are_ clever aren't you?" He sounded positively gleeful. "Yes I am. Would you be so kind to give me your names?"

Adam was running through everything he'd ever heard about faeries in his head. Rule number one: Don't Give Them Your Name. Rule Two: Don't Be Rude To Them. He thought quickly.

"No," he said. "You can’t have my name. But you can call me Adam."

"Delightful!" They cried, "I like you. What about you, little dreamer?"

Ronan scowled. "You can fuck right off."

Adam braved himself for evisceration, but they looked even happier. "It's been so long since anyone was rude to me! For that, I'll tell you what you so desperately want to know, dreamer! I can see the questions swimming on the tip of your tongue."

They clicked their tongue. "You see, you dreamers are mostly human. But way far along your line you had a great-great grandparent who wasn't. One who was Fey." With that, they stepped forward, and Adam could see the outline of two giant wings behind them. 

They raised their hands up, stretching carelessly, and the arms of their robe slid down, revealing pale flesh dotted with feathers. Adam noticed their teeth were pointed.

"I think that will be my gift for opening our worlds to each other once again," they continued, with a mouth full of fangs. "Putting you in touch with your roots!"

They grabbed Ronan's face again, and the night horrors surged forward in a wave of tar-black feathers and claws, but the Fey disappeared with a cackle before they could reach it.

Ronan dropped like a rock. Adam saw it happen as if it were in slow motion.

The night horrors dispersed back into the surrounding forest as Adam ran to Ronan's side. He was lying curled in on himself, and Adam almost couldn't see him in the dark. The blackness seemed to be enveloping him, almost a solid, tangible thing.

Then Adam tripped over a piece of darkness made solid and landed heavily. A wing. He stumbled back, away from the night horror. They may have been Ronan's creations, but they always had a mind of their own.

The night horror didn't move. Adam crept closer. Still nothing. He realized there was no night horror attached to the wing, that at the base of it where it should have adhered to the back of a monster, was the tattooed skin of Ronan's back.

Oh fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, come bug me on my tumblr, the-cyberpunk-samurai!
> 
> If you liked it please leave feedback, this is the first time i've posted something since i was 14 lmao


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